Chevrolet Trucks

The first Chevy pickups debuted the same year Chevrolet became part of General Motors: 1918. A specific one-ton application, based on a beefed-up passenger car frame, was introduced the same year. It was a chassis and cowl only; the owner was expected to provide a cab and body. Chevrolet's first truck with a cab and bed selection was offered in 1927; the truck cost $495, and the cab was a $115 option. The 3100 name arrived in 1946 on what was formerly the BK series; the BL-series trucks were renamed 3600, and the one-ton models absent immediately preceding the war were named 3800. The 3000-series names ended in 1959.

There were actually two different Chevy pickups in 1955, known colloquially as First Series and Second Series. The First Series pickups were carryover 1954s; The base six carried over from the previous season, but even that had been substantially revised in 1954 with a new head, pistons and rods, bearings, and a more rigid crank; it was still based on the "cast-iron wonder" of 1929 that made Chevy a serious competitor in trucks. A re-engineered three-speed manual transmission and an open driveshaft were improvements on First Series '55s that carried over to the Second Series.